Exclusive Raid Battles

Exclusive Raid Battles are an upcoming type of Pokemon GO Raids, featuring invitation only Gym battles against ultra-rare Pokemon like Mewtwo. Participating Exclusive Raid require an invitation, which in term requires you to have recently (“past few weeks”) participated in Raids at your local Gyms.

Niantic has officially confirmed (link) several requirements that need to be fulfilled in order to receive an exclusive raid invitation. To receive an Exclusive Raid Invitation, the following needs to be true for your account:

It’s unclear whether or not it’s possible to become eligible for the Invitation after the Exclusive Raid Egg appears.You successfully completed at least one Raid at the Gym where the Exclusive Raid is taking place

You successfully completed the above mentioned Raid recently, which according to the Japanese Pokemon GO website means in the past few weeks

Much like other Raids, a Raid Egg will be present atop of the Gym prior to invitations being sent out. It’s not yet clear which Pokemon will be available, as only Mewtwo has been confirmed.

Exclusive Raid Rewards

These raids reward the same items like Tier 1-4 Raid battles, roughly in the same quantities, with only one twist. Players are reporting receiving a baseline of 50 Premier Balls in order to catch a Mewtwo.

Which Gyms will be chosen to host an ExclusiveRaid?

There is no official explanation which criteria will be used to pick Gyms for Exclusive Raids. Rumor has it that only the most popular Gyms will be chosen, likely to increase the number of players that can participate.

In all honesty, we don’t expect too many problems here, even for urban players, as Niantic collects usage and activity data for every Gym.

How many players will be required?We know that Mewtwo requires at least 14 Trainers. It’s not yet known how difficult the other Exclusive Raid Bosses will be, but we do expect something in line with the difficulty of a Lugia Raid.